Motors are commonly used with appliances and the like to rotate a component of the appliance at a high operational speed. Some appliance configurations require that a portion of the appliance be de-coupled from the motor/motor base to facilitate their use. Examples of such appliances are consumer and industrial mixers, blenders and the like, wherein a container or bowl has a fixture that couples with a motor shaft.
Coupling a motor shaft to a receiving component is problematic in that the devices may be slightly misaligned due to poor tolerances. Poor alignment of the structure surrounding the shaft and receiving component may also contribute to misalignment.
Another problem with current appliances is that cooling air is first drawn in through and over the motor and then expelled by a fan. Conventional ventilating appliances are thermally managed by “pulling” air from a base section and exhausting that air through the appropriate port areas designed into the appliance base. This means that the noise spectrum generated at the ventilating fan exhaust perimeter is introduced directly into exhaust air passages and is transferred out to ambient. Moreover, such prior art configurations first transfer heated air from the motor through the fan. It is known that directing heated air through the fan reduces mass air flow, thus requiring more work by the motor and more air flow is then required for cooling. This additional work required by the motor in turn generates more noise from the fan. Prior art solutions to this problem include elaborate air passage baffling and the addition of sound deadening material to achieve a low system noise output, which adds complexity and cost to the configuration.
Misalignment of the motor shaft with the receiving component and poor heat management contribute to premature failure of the shaft and/or the receiving component and prevents the appliance from obtaining higher rotational speeds. Therefore, there is a need in the art to improve the air management features and to accommodate or improve the misalignment problem.